Thanhhà Lại

Audiobook performed by Doan Ly


Ha is the 10-year-old daughter of a Vietnamese Navy Officer who has gone missing while on a mission. As the Americans pull out of the war and Saigon is about to fall, Ha and her family escape the country via ship. Eventually they gain a sponsor, and the family tries to start over in the USA, a strange land, where the language, food, customs and religion are all different what they are used to.

This middle-grade novel focusing on the immigrant experience is told show more entirely in verse, and I applaud Lai for how much she manages to convey in so few words. Ha is a strong little girl, focusing on becoming a star pupil at school (as she had done in Saigon), trying to make friends, to learn the customs and traditions of American celebrations like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, trying to NOT get beaten by bullies. Ha watches her mother work a menial job and slowly acknowledge that her husband is likely dead. In one heart-wrenching poem the child admits:
No one would believe me
but at times
I would choose
wartime in Saigon
over
peacetime in Alabama

Still the family perseveres, and makes their way in this new land, celebrating each accomplishment, and giving thanks for the opportunity to succeed. It’s a moving story and wonderfully told. It is at once complex and straightforward, nuanced, and simple.

The author note at the end of the work explains that much of what happens to Ha in the novel actually happened to the author.

The book won the National Book Award, and was also named a Newbery Honor Book.

The audiobook is performed by Doan Ly. She has a wonderful delivery for this book. Great pace and she’s believable as a young girl. I did read at least half the book in text format, however because I was anxious to finish it. show less

It's 1975, and Hà lives in Saigon with her mother and brothers. Money is tight, but she is happy with her life there. The impending threat from the Communist regime, however, makes her mother uneasy. Should the family stay, or should they try to make their way out of Vietnam to France, Canada, or America? Eventually, Hà and her family find places on a boat leaving Vietnam on April 29th, the day before the Fall of Saigon. After a difficult voyage and a period of adjustment in a refugee show more camp, Hà's family is sponsored by a man from Alabama. How will Hà and her family adjust to life in a new country, where the language is strange and difficult and not all of the citizens are welcoming?

As with any verse novel, this is a fast read, even with taking time to savor a poetic thought here and there. However, even in this spare, bare-bones format, Hà's personality shines through. She's a little bit spunky, a little bit stubborn, and reminds me a lot of another Newbery Honor-winning heroine -- Ramona Quimby. Hà's struggles with schoolwork, brothers, and schoolyard bullies will resonate with readers, even those who have little knowledge of the politics surrounding the Vietnam War.

So, is this charming book deserving of the honors it has received? Yes, definitely. show less

Hang recalls some harrowing stuff over the course of this novel, however, those moments are buffered with bits of humor and hope and the kind of characters who feel as though they’ll linger in your mind forever in a good way.

LeeRoy is most definitely one of those characters, and a surprise at that. He’s a wanna-be cowboy with no actual cowboy experience (yet way too much confidence in his cowboy abilities), he’s an early adopter of rap music (this story takes place in the early show more 80’s), sports a mustache and questionable cowboy duds, plus he’s booksmart. In our often horrible real world, a girl like Hang probably would have crossed paths with someone awful, but I’m so glad LeeRoy is the person the author gave her, patient and kind and funny and more impressed by Hang’s feisty personality than put out by it.

It should be noted what hints of romance there are here, are slow in coming and often subtle, that isn’t going to work for every reader, to me though it fit the story perfectly, Hang had more pressing concerns than landing a boyfriend. But if you do like a quieter kind of romance, LeeRoy’s willingness to talk Hang through a certain moment in this book is just about as attractive as someone can get, there’s no need for a steamy makeout session to emphasize the point the author makes right then and there about what Hang and LeeRoy mean to one another.

The settings in this book, toiling in the dust and the heat of Texas farm country, the flashbacks to life in Vietnam altered by the military’s presence, and the treachorous boat journey to the US, these are places and experiences I’ve never come close to having but they’re written in a way that made them easily imagined all without going overboard on description.

Lastly, I have to talk about Hang. She’s so admirable to survive what she survived, to carry the amount of guilt she feels and not let it weigh her down, not let the language barrier or fear or anything else stop her from trying to reunite with her little brother. She is brimming with toughness and soul. If you’re looking for a hero (and don’t mind if she’s fictional) I doubt you could find much better than Hang. show less

I've been meaning to read this book for years, and I'm glad I finally had the chance. Mai/Mia is being sent to Vietnam for the summer to support her grandmother. This is such an amazing tween-early teen book -- really great at capturing the sometimes desperately whiny conflict as the Mai struggles with her own needs and desires (beach! friends! possible-maybe-crush-romance) and her family's (tracing the path of a long lost and dearly beloved grandfather, surgery for kids with facial show more abnormalities, adult concerns). The story unfolds gradually and Mai uses her secret ability to understand most spoken Vietnamese to learn more about her family's history. Some funny moments, a cousin obsessed with frogs, an ongoing fight to not be the favorite mosquito snack of the entire village, a really eloquent and high impact depiction of Vietnamese summer, and one of the most beautifully kind and loving families at the heart. show less